COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Football fans of all ages are invited to
Tennessee Tech’s Tucker Stadium Saturday for the annual
Gathering of Eagles, with free admission, free food, free football
and more.

Gates open at 12:30 p.m. and the Golden Eagle football team will
be on the field for its second scrimmage at 1 p.m.

Fans can pick up schedule posters and pocket schedules, free hot
dogs, chips and Pepsi drinks, and following the scrimmage the
players will gather for fans to meet and get autographs.

Tech opens the season on Saturday, Sept. 4 with a game at No. 18
Arkansas, followed with a contest at No. 8 TCU on Saturday, Sept.
11. The home opener is Thursday night, Sept. 16, against Lane
College with kickoff in Tucker Stadium at 7 p.m.

Friday practice sets stage for Saturday's
scrimmage

The Golden Eagles were greeted Friday morning by sunshine and
perfect weather for their two-hour morning practice. The
temperature was 74 as the session began.

After two weeks of fall camp, the attitude and enthusiasm within
the team remains at a high level, according to head coach Watson
Brown.

“Our attitude’s been good. Our conditioning is good. I
don’t think we’re where we want to be. There are still
too many mistakes but as long as we keep getting great effort,
I’ve got to think it’s going to come on,” Brown
said.

“This was called ‘get better week’ and
we’ll see Saturday how much better we got in the second week.
Then comes the third week, which is called ‘finish
week’ where we’ve got to finish our fundamentals
because after that we’ve got to start playing
games.”

Despite torrential rains will altered the team’s mid-week
schedule, Brown said his team was able to get through everything
that was planned for the second week of camp.

“I think it was a successful week,” Brown said.
“We were able to get our all our practices in, we
haven’t missed any meetings. We made it through the flood in
the locker room and all the heavy rains that we’ve had.
We’ve gone from awfully rainy days to hot days and the
players have done a real nice job adapting.”

Brown has three primary goals for Saturday’s scrimmage,
which gets underway at 1 p.m. as part of the annual Gathering of
Eagles in Tucker Stadium.

“Number one is health. We want everybody to come through
healthy, and we want to look at everybody,” Brown said.
Number two, we’re looking for players who will help this
football team. We cannot win a championship with 11 offensive and
11 defensive guys. It’s impossible.

“Number three, we want to see our offense, defense and
kicking systems and see if they’ve improved from week one to
week two. “

Tech receiving votes in FCS preseason polls

Voters around the country have taken early notice of the promise
building in Tenessee Tech's fall camp, and the Golden Eagles have
received votes in the FCS preseason poll. Two Ohio Valley
Conference teams are listed in the Top 25 and Tech is among three
other league schools listed as "others receiving votes" for the
2010 campaign.

With the first home game just 27 days away, season ticket sales
continue for fans to follow the 2010 Golden Eagles, and one
of the hottest buys is th 'Back The Eagles' business plan. Already
nearly 60 area businesses have purchased the plan.

The business plan is a package of 10 season tickets for just
$200. Sales teams are contacting businesses in the area daily to
offer the opportunity to support Tech football through this
money-saving offer.

The Golden Eagles open the 2010 home season on Thursday, Sept. 16,
with a non-conference game against Lane College, the first of five
home games in Tucker Stadium. After the opener, Tech hosts four
consecutive OVC games against UT Martin (Sept. 30), Eastern
Illinois (Oct. 16), Eastern Kentucky (Nov. 13) and Jacksonville
State (Nov. 20).

Tickets can be purchased at the Athletics Ticket Office in Eblen
Center weekdays from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. (closed noon to 1
p.m.), or by calling (931) 372-3940. Tickets are also available
online at TTUsports.com.